Tag Archives: Osama bin Laden

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I believe that the US should seek a UN-sponsored solution to Syria‘s use of chemical weapons. If a trial of Assad is warranted for war crimes, then he should be indicted and tried. If Assad will not surrender to a trial, a UN-authorized raid under US leadership would follow to bring Assad to justice. The raid would be a multi-national version of the raid that killed bin Laden. I realize that a larger raid would be necessary and it could be costly in western lives, but that would be better than lobbing a few cruise missiles at targets in Syria that killed more civilians. After the Assad trial if he is found guilty and is punished, the UN should sponsor a peace conference to which all sides in Syria are invited.

After I wrote Bush and bin Laden, I decided to do some further reading on the subject. Tommy Franks‘s deputy Lieutenant General Michael DeLong with Noah Lukeman wrote a book I had not read before entitled Inside Centcom, The Unvarnished Truth about the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In that book, DeLong again stated his conviction that bin Laden was at Tora Bora during late 2001, early 2002. The area of interest around Tora Bora was 70 square miles. If it were circular, the circumference to be guarded was 30 miles; if rectangular 7 by 10 miles, the perimeter was 34 miles. Assuming a rectangle 1 mile by 70 miles long, the worst possible case from our viewpoint, the perimeter to be guarded against escape by bin Laden would have been 142 miles. A large area to cover it is true, but surely it was well within our capabilities to capture the world’s most wanted war criminal since the mountainous terrain limited the number of escape routes for the non-mountain climbers of al-Qaeda members from Saudi Arabia. After all, how many desert dwellers climb mountains for sport or recreation?

“Driven out of their strongholds, the remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda fled to Afghanistan’s rugged eastern border with Pakistan. In early 2002, Tommy Franks mounted a major assault called Operation Anaconda. Out troops, joined by coalition partners and Afghan forces, squeezed out the remaining al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan. CIA officers and Special Forces crawled through the caves, calling in airstrikes on terrorist hideouts and putting a serious dent in al Qaeda’s army.

“I hoped I would get a call with the news that Osama bin Laden was among the dead or captured. We were searching for him constantly and received frequent but conflicting information on his whereabouts. Some reports placed him in Jalalabad. Others had him in Peshawar, or at a lake near Kandahar, or at the Tora Bora cave complex. Our troops pursued every lead. Several times we thought we might have nailed him. But the intelligence never panned out.

“Years later, critics charged that we allowed bin Laden to slip the noose at Tora Bora. I sure didn’t see it that way. I asked our commanders and CIA officials about bin Laden frequently. They were working around the clock to locate him, and they assured me they had the troop levels and resources they needed. If we had known for sure where he was, we would have moved heaven and earth to bring him to justice.”

Those are Bush’s words, and I don’t believe them. And here is why.

At that time we knew that a portion of the Pakistan government was supporting the Taliban and probably still are. We surrounded Tora Bora on the Afghan side and relied on the Pakistanis to block exits from Tora Bora into Pakistan. They allowed bin Laden and much of al-Qaeda to escape. President Obama was able to find and kill bin Laden ONLY because he kept the Pakistan government in the dark.

We have George W. Bush’s words above. Years later, he expressed unconcern about bin Laden being only one man, as if the man responsible for 9-11 was not important. In his book In My Time, Dick Cheney does not mention Tora Bora. Tommy Franks in his book American Soldier did not know where bin Laden was. However, Franks’s deputy in command, Michael DeLong in his book A General Speaks Out, said that bin Laden was definitely at Tora Bora. He said that in the first edition of the book and changed his story in the second edition. Donald Rumsfeld claimed that we could not use American troops to block exits from Tora Bora because they would upset the area residents. Imagine that.

We had troops in the area who ready and eager to join in the battle. They were not used and wonder today why not. Tora Bora occurred within 90 days of 9-11. Imagine how different our world would be today if we had killed or captured bin Laden and the majority of al-Qaeda there. The war against al-Qaeda would have been one of the shortest wars in our history. At the beginning of the US Civil War, Union soldiers were asked to enlist for a short war, 90 days or less. The Civil War dragged on for four long, hard years. The war against al-Qaeda began on 9-11-2001 and has dragged on for 11 years with no end in sight.

How do I know that Bush’s words are untrue? Let me count the ways.

When 9-11 occurred, I thought that the Bush team was the team we needed to fight al-Qaeda. One year into the Iraq war in 2004, I had changed my mind completely. I wanted to know what was happening in Iraq and the media were not forthcoming. I started reading every book I could on Iraq and they convinced me that the Bush administration was incompetent. I have continued my reading on Iraq including Paul Bremer’s 2006 book entitled My Year in Iraq. I am convinced that all of Bush’s efforts were a mistake and a terrible of waste of life and national treasure. Even the apparent success of the surge was a fortuitous coincidence with Iraqi internal conditions that made the surge look like a success to American reporters.

Then in 2005, there was Katrina which could have been largely prevented if Bush had strengthened the levees instead of spending the money on a shipping canal that was hardly ever used. He had 4.5 years to address that problem and did not. The Afghan and Iraq wars continued during Bush’s second term. In 2007 and 2008, the banking system nearly ground to a halt and the Great Recession began. Bush could have acted earlier with Alan Greenspan to stop the inflation of the credit bubble. He did nothing.

If the Bush administration was so incompetent after invading Iraq, do we have any evidence that they were more competent before? No, we do not. We know now that Iraq was invaded under false pretenses. The Bush administration did not prevent 9-11 from happening. After it happened, it declared war on Afghanistan even though the Taliban were willing to turn bin Laden over to another country. Bush refused and started bombing the country. Rumsfeld knew that there were few targets to attack in Afghanistan and expressed the desire to start bombing Iraq where there were more targets.

So I say to you that the Bush administration was an incompetent administration from beginning to end, for the entire eight years. Not capturing bin Laden and the majority of al-Qaeda at Tora Bora when they were cornered was either stupid or criminal or both.

A popular sport in the Middle East today is the game of kick the grenade. In practice, the game is played with the pin in the grenade, while in actual play the pin is removed. The object of the game is to kill or maim all of the opposing players until one team wins by the survival of one or more of its players. There are two leagues, the Iron Fist league and the Midwife league. Teams are organized by country and usually divided into Sunni and Shiite teams. The Sunni teams are owned by Saudi Arabia, and the Shiite teams are financed by Iran. Osama bin Laden was a star player on the Sunni, al-Qaeda team before his untimely death. At season’s end, the winning team receives the Pottery Barn Cup for one year’s possession. However, if you break it, you own it.

Not only is the sport dangerous to its participants, it is also dangerous to innocent spectators and referees. From time to time, outside countries such as the US and the coalition of the willing decide to take charge of the refereeing. Most recently there was international dissatisfaction with the job that Saddam Hussein was doing, and we replaced him, while trying to change the rules. In doing so, we managed to upset both the players and the spectators leading to a temporary breakdown in the rules. Now that the US and others have left Iraq, the game is returning to its original rules.

Like this:

English: President Barack Obama delivers a statement in the East Room of the White House on the mission against Osama bin Laden, May 1, 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Barack Obama’s foreign policy successes are considered by most to be a source of strength. Just as they did in 2004 with John Kerry’s experience in Vietnam, the GOP are trying to turn a source of strength into a weakness. The GOP were successful in 2004 with their Swiftboat campaign. Now in 2012, the GOP talking heads are unanimous in parroting the line that President Obama is responsible for the terrorist attack in Libya. They are trying to make the public forget who was responsible for the killing of bin Laden.

During the initial confusion after the attack, not all of the Obama administration spokespeople spoke with a single voice. I would suggest that some allowance be made for human error. Which would you prefer, adults expressing their opinions or a chorus line of sycophants united in expressing the GOP party line? I would opt for the thinking adults.